County Fair time !

Over the past year, I've developed a new friendship.  Having someone who enjoys doing the same things as me is something that I have DEARLY missed since leaving Oklahoma 10 years ago.

This lady, who goes to my church, approached me to accompany her on visits to the widows of our church, seeing as how I had become widowed myself and might understand their feelings and concerns.

Once I quit working at Walmart, I had free time to join her, and it has been a wonderful blessing to us both, and hopefully to our sisters in Christ.

When she discovered my love of quilting, she mentioned, enthusiatically, that she would love to learn to quilt.  I've heard this from many people, but in discussing it, I could tell that she meant NOW, not just 'someday'.   So I agreed to teach her.

Well, fast forwarding to this summer, and her approaching a finish on her first quilt, we had been talking about her entering it in the local county fair.   She was very much interested in that, and had lots of family support urging her to do so.

Monday, August 12th came, and we dropped off our quilts....mine got entered into a machine-quilted category, and hers in a 'first quilt' category.  Well, on Thursday, they let us in to view the judging results without having to pay a 'Fair' admission charge.  Imagine our surprise when we walked into the exhibit room and both had ribbons on them !

Darleene's first quilt won her a second-place ribbon, and you can just
SEE the joy on her face !   I was equally proud of and for my 'student' and new friend.

She rejoiced with me, too, as we saw that I had gained a first-place ribbon, and the overall "Best in Show" ribbon over the category of all of the Home Economics class.

You may recall me sharing the finish on this quilt a while back HERE


I love the tradition of county fair exhibits, and so hope that people will continue to support them and participate.

But in the meantime, I now have a new quilting buddy !

Finished.-- calling it "2 x 4, Squared"

I just whipped up this little 38 1/2” x 46 1/2”, two-sided quiltie.

I don’t know the name or source of this pattern, as I think that I saw this design in a bed-sized quilt on Facebook, in the group "Scrap Quilt Enthusiasts".


But it's just a simple block made up of rectangles.
Having said that, the block calls for 4 — 2 1/2” x 4 1/2” rectangles of two different fabrics, resulting in a block with a finished measurement of 8 inches square.

Detail....quilted by machine, obviously, in the ditch, both horizontally and vertically; plus, serpentine stitch vertically down the middle of the rectangles .

Making good use of my fabric stash, I also used up some 2 1/2” strips with a favorite hoarded print (I think that you may have given me the bigger piece, Wanda Gayle),  to make the back (which I like almost as much as the front).

Marley Jo volunteered her help during the hand-stitching of the binding.  Thanks so very much, Marley !